David Thibodeau

I know.. you all were thinking cool! Someone is doing the conversion! No I am sorry to say I am using the Pedrosa kit that comes with 69 decals. I am a big fan of "The Kentucky kid" but dont care if the tins are incorrect on the Tamiya kit. To the glancing admirer it wont matter, but thats just me....:icon16: Here is my inspiration... With that said I got to work. I did strip the frame and swingarm opting for alclad aluminum. The Kit plating is a bit too bright. I think it looks more realistic in alclad. A black wash gives it depth. Speaking of the tins or body parts they are done too.. I used a mixture of decanted Tamiya orange and Chrome yellow till I had the right hue of orange to match the stripe on the seat cowl decal. (Actually I used Testors Grabber orange the first time and was very unhappy with it only after I had added the tank decals....... They were torn off and the repaint of the orange was done. Thanks to Clay, I have some new tank decals off an 03' sheet on the way... ) The black is actually blue!! So dark it looks black which is Miller lite PPG blue with black added. All of it was covered with dupont clear. And if you read carefully above, you will know why the tank has no decals!!! :naughty: But look at how well the orange on the tank matches thew seat cowl now!! Begining of the engine........ Exhaust is complete... ALclad chrome, Tamiya clear orange, blue, and red for the heat staining... Wheels were painted with Pactra RC Neon Orange followed by Dupont clear...

Beautiful job on such a vintage kit Scott!!!! DaveT

Ya think?? Thanks guys... now Izzy.... get yours done!!!!! DaveT

Thanks guys.... I had a nice quiet weekend and I finished it up!! http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9466

This one went rather quick.... it was a relaxing weekend with nothing going on so I finished this one up. Really besides body work and paint there is not much to these things but they build up into real nice pieces........... Paint is hellrot BMW red followed by dupont clear. The decals are cartograph in the kit and some of the best I have ever used. Enjoy the pics.

I masked off the undertray and shot it with krylon semi flat black and added some SMS twill weave CF decal to the center monocoque along with some Pro Tech bolts... Interior halves were assembled and shot with krylon Semi flat black from the can. Then I Added some SMS Twill weave CF, Black flocking, and little details such as PE pedals, bolts, and a Pro tech belt kit with Kit Sabelt decals for the belts. With a little clean detail these cockpits can really look good..... Then I installed the cockpit assembly and steering wheel assembly. If you look closely I lined the inner panels of the body that surrounds the cockpit with CF decals as well!

I have been working on this one on and off for a year so I decided to pull it back out and get back on it.... I always loved the look of the CART cars. Especially the Red Target cars of Vasser and Zanardi. Using the Revell Monogram kit which some people call a Junk kit I set to work. Here is the real car I am shooting to replicate. Road course wings and smooth Firehawks. One Major pitfall of the kit is the awful seam down the side of the monocoque once you put the upper and lower halves together. On my first kit I built (Gil De Ferrans Penske Marlboro ride) Clay taught me how to eliminate this seam. A big thanks goes out to him on how to do this. I decided this modification is a must on these kits and its real easy to do. FIrst you need to carefully saw the lower molded A arms off..... Next , grab the lower pan and cut as far back as possible with a razor saw.The side winglets are a good gauge to measure how far you can cut. This is made separate so the interior tub can be installed after paint and finishing. It will slip into the front monocoque and then the lower pan will be installed. Once the lower front piece off the lower pan is separated, clean it up and glue it to the upper monocoque. Fill it well with filler or my preference is super glue. I filled mine with gap filling Zap glue. Then take 320 grit and block sand the seam smooth. The lower a Arm will be "pinned" in place. Both Suspension arm ends were cleaned up and small pilot holes were drilled and pins installed. I used soft craft wire so they can be adjusted accordingly. Here is the payoff. I used gap filling glue for another reason. It does not shrink, and it is clear so after all that sanding I can still see the areas where the suspension arms used to be molded!!! Gives me a perfect point to drill the pilot holes for the suspension arms to be reattatched. A quick coat of primer was added to check the seam. Looks perfect!! And here is the real payoff!! I jumped ahead so I will explain what took place. I Cleaned up the rest of the components, removed the dorsal fin ( I think that piece was on older cart cars) and primed the car with grey duplicolor filler primer. Next I coated all pieces evenly with Duplicolor white sealer. I looked through the "Uncle" stash and found a cool BMW bright red called "Hellrot" interestingly enough, that means Bright red in german!! I thought this looked like a perfect color for the Target car. Followed by 2 coats od Chromaclear of course!! It needs MINIMUM polishing. Can you see a side seam? It is the only pitfall I see with these kits and I have to thank Clay once again for the awesome tip!! The only part that will be visible from the bottom. But most of this will be black or Carbon fiber. Have not decided yet.....sorry for the slightly blurry pic.... :oops:

That looks spectacular!!!! What kit is that? The AMT F&F one with better wheels and tires? DaveT

Its all done! And you will all see the build up real soon!! Here is all the work covered up by the bodywork... And here are finished pics.. once again I used SMS carbon templates and PE kit. Great pieces I highly reccomend from a class act. Matthew Wells..... Paint is PPG Ford electric blue and DUpont clear.

Now that is funny!! But I think I would leave them bare as well... they are just too pretty to paint. I saw Jay's kit in Atlanta and almost convinved him to hand it over to me. IT IS DEFINITELY WORTH THE MONEY...... He even got an FXX out of it, but I went home empty handed... With a nice 99 8 car though..... Looks great so far Jay!!! Keep going!! Dave T

Then you of all people will love my next subject...... C6-R!!! thanks again to all of you!!! Dave T

Dave, Dave, Dave.... You missed your calling!!! That thing is flat out gorgeous!!!! DaveT

Exactly Matt, it does not matter whether the tires are all the same size or not.... They can have different air pressure, balance etc.... they may not be marked as pronounced as mine, but I like the additional detail it brings to the tires.... Thanks guys... glad you all like it. I really enjoyed building a car with such a rich racing heritage.... DaveT

Finished this up over the New Year holiday. I studied alot of engine photos of the 956/962. The photos inspired me to add some additional detail to the rather plain engine bay. Pro tech line and fittings combined with detailmaster hardware were used for all plumbing. I scratch built some areas as well including brake duct towers and coolant piping from solder. All in all I think it helped bring a 22 year old kit to life. Paint is Tamiya blue and white along with dupont 2k clear. Decals were pretty difficult to work with because of their sheer age but I managed. Thanks for looking!!

No, it reads RLP... Petty's initials... Thanks alot everyone, its getting shipped to its owner on Wed........ overnight shipping on him of course, but thats less time in the mail.... good idea!! Dave T

Thanks guys, I decided since I have the 1/16th Petty car complete to get back on the 956..... Alot of components on the car are highly polished aluminum.... to get this look I used BMF...... I wanted a fairly detailed engine so here is the beginning stages. Engine is wired with coil added along with a few overflow lines. Everything received a light black wash..... Body was added temporarily for photos..... Much more to come!!! DaveT

And here is the completed car......

Finished this up over the last few days.... Really nice kit with very little fit issues and nice detail out of the box. Only modification is adjusting the ride height.. Chassis pics before body final fitment:

Venturing into the unknown for me, I pulled out and dusted off (Literally) the 22 year old Tamiya Rothmans porsche 956. The decals were yellowed so I put them in a bay window for an hour and they lightened up. I am going for a clean build of the historic car with some added engine wire detailing. Jumping ahead, the body is done as well as glass in place. The decals were very hard to work with due to their age but I managed. Paint is tamiya white and blue followed by dupont clear. I tried to apply the glass as tidy as possible: The chassis bottom was painted as per instructions I used tamiya silver leaf for the aluminum areas and slightly weathered it with tamiya weathering kit. Finally tires and wheels are done. Covers were left off rear wheels as per reference photos of the actual car. Thanks for looking.... DaveT

Here it is!!! (Bill. I am flattered at your response and very appreciative. You are a legend and was very inspirational in my beggining days of building nascar. Please remember this is a build for a client that wanted me to stick mainly to the stock essentials of this kit.... Superdetailing was not requested. Believe me it was hard to refrain!! The build price would have been substantially higher and the client decided to have it built stock.... Rear diff and suspension complete: Front suspension complete: Front glass detailed and installed: Rear glass and new spoiler made out of aluminum detailed with protech .040 bolts. Interior Work: Overall body view: More soon!! DaveT

Here is one I have been working on for a client in New Jersey. He paid big bucks on ebay and won one of the "Holy Grail" Nascar kits to alot of nascar modelers. The MPC 1/16th scale Petty charger. I found a set of Slixx decals to use in place of the old kit sheet. The body and hood come molded in clear plastic. Of course the request was to paint it in traditional Petty BLue and Rocket Red. The body, hood and all remaining parts were cleaned up and primed. Real petty blue Mixed by Al Mosteller was used. SEMS Stop Light red which is what Petty used is the rocket red followed by dupont chroma clear. Here are the body pics painted cleared before decals. The white stripe is 1/32 pinstripe tape that I applied before clearcoat. Tire lettering was carefully painted, and weathered for realism CHassis was also built, primed, painted and cleared. And with the body polished and decaled. I also included a 1/24 scale Petty last ride model built by Al Mosteller to show the size of this thing. In case some are wondering, I am doing this car Boxstock. The owner wanted it built exactly out of the box for nostalgic purposes. Believe me if this puppy was mine I would have gone all out on it!! But it has impressive detail out of the box considering its a 30 year old kit. More updates very soon. DaveT

Built using the MCW Resin long nose body and chassis with a Rat Packer Donor kit. Look for a full build up in a future issue of the magazine on all the details.. Yes the hood is missing because the car ran without one. For those that are wondering this is one of 3 fastbacks that were built and the only one that was made into a longnose drag car. I read this car was an ex Alan Green Chevrolet car that was raced by "the Jolly Boys" Thanks for looking!

Thanks guys, The next porsche I build will be the CGT..... in Midnite blue.....

Clean boxstock Tamiya build up of the ultimate 911...... color is cobra colors Daytona Sunset Metallic ( corvette color) followed by 2 coats of dupont chroma clear.....

Thanks again!! I am diligently working on this one to add to the Atlanta show, Rear suspension is complete. Since this is a short track martinsville car I added some brake ducts made out of wire wrapped with BMF...... Here is a shot with the body on..... With the rear suspension out of the way, I focused on mods on the dash.. the kit dash was used but a new tray was made on the passenger side to accomodate the electronics that will be there soon!! Gauge bezels really set the dash off from Machine Works Indy (clay) And with the body on..... More updates soon! DaveT